O'er his rude tablets of primeval lore,'
Nor let the living star of science sink
Beneath the waters, which ingulf'd the world!-
Of visions, by Calliope reveal'd

To him, who raced upon his typic lyre
The diapason of man's mingled frame,
And the grand Doric heptachord of Heaven!
With all of pure, of wondrous and arcane,
Which the grave sons of Mochus, many a night
Told to the young and bright-hair'd visitant

Of Carmel's sacred mount! 4-Then, in a flow

1

Of calmer converse, he beguiled us on
Through many a maze of garden and of porch,

ginal and exclusive. The doctrine of the world's eternity may be
traced through all the sects. The continual metempsychosis of Py-
thagoras, the grand periodic year of the Stoics (at the conclusion of
which the universe is supposed to return to its original order, and
commence a new revolution), the successive dissolution and combina-
tion of atoms maintained by the Epicureans, all these tenets are but
different intimations of the same general belief in the eternity of
the world. As St Austin explains the periodic year of the Stoics, it dis-
agrees only so far with the idea of the Pythagoreans, that instead of
an endless transmission of the soul through a variety of bodies, it
restores the same body and soul to repeat their former round of
existence, and that identical Plato, who lectured in the Academy
of Athens, shall again and again, at certain intervals during the lapse
of eternity, appear in the same academy and resume the same func-
tions sic eadem tempora temporaliumque rerum volumina
repeti, ut v. g. sicut in isto sæculo Plato philosophus in urbe Athe-
niensi, in ea schola quæ Academia dicta est, discipulos docuit, ita

Cham, the son of Noah, is supposed to have taken with him into the ark the principal doctrines of magical, or rather of natural science, which he had inscribed upon some very durable substances, in order that they might resist the ravages of the deluge, and transmit the secrets of antediluvian knowledge to his posterity.-See the extracts made by BAYLE, in his article Cham. The identity of Cham and Zo-per innumerabilia retro sæcula, multum plexis quidem intervallis, roaster depends upon the authority of Berosus, or the impostor Annius, and a few more such respectable testimonies.-See NAUDE's Apologie pour les Grands Hommes, etc. chap. 8, where he takes more trouble than is necessary in refuting this gratuitous supposition. * Chamum à posteris hujus artis admiratoribus Zoroastrum, seu vivum astrum, propterea fuisse dictum et pro Deo habitum.-BoCHART. Geograph. Sacr. lib. iv, cap. 1.

3 Orpheus.-PAULINES, in his Hebdomades, cap. 2, lib. iii, has endeavoured to show, after the Platonists, that man is a diapason, made up of a diatesseron, which is his soul, and a diapente, which is his body. Those frequent allusions to music, by which the ancient philosophers illustrated their sublime theories, must have tended very much to elevate the character of the art, and to enrich it with associations of the grandest and most interesting nature. See a preceding note, page 92, for their ideas upon the harmony of the spheres. Heraclitus compared the mixture of good and evil in this world to the blended varieties of barmony in a musical instrument (PLUTARCH, de Anime Procreat.); and Eury, hamus, the Pythagorean, in a fragment preserved by Stobaeus, describes human life, in its perfection, as a sweet and well-tuned lyre. Some of the ancients were so fauciful as to suppose that the operations of the memory were regulated by a kind of musical cadence, and that ideas occurred to it per

arsin et thesin; while others converted the whole man into a mere

harmonized machine, whose motion depended upon a certain tension of the body, analogous to that of the strings in an instrument.— Cicero indeed ridicules Aristoxenus for this fancy, and says, let bim teach singing, and leave philosophy to Aristotle; but Aristotle himself, though decidedly opposed to the harmonic speculations of the Pythagoreans and Platonists, could sometimes condescend to enliven his doctrines by reference to the beauties of musical science; as, in the treatise, Περι κοσμού, attributed to him, καθάπερ δε εν χαρά, κορυφαίου κατάρξαντος, κ. τ. λ.

The Abbé BATTEUX, upon the doctrine of the Stoics, attributes to those philosophers the same mode of illustration. L'âme était cause active, 212 212, le corps cause passive de Tou пutysty. L'une agissant dans l'autre; et y prenant, par son action même, un caractère, des formes, des modifications, qu'elle n'avait pas par ellemême à peu près comme l'air, qui, chassé dans un instrument de musique, fait connaitre par les différens sons qu'il produit, les différentes modifications qu'il y reçoit. See a fine simile of this kind in Cardinal POLIGNAC's Poem, lib. 5. v. 734.

sed certis, et idem Plato, et eadem civitas, eademque schola, iidemque discipuli repetiti et per innumerabilia deinde sæcula repetendi sint. -De Civitat. Dei, lib. xii, cap. 13. VANINI, in his Dialogues, has given us a similar explication of the periodic revolutions of the world :Ea de causa, qui nunc sunt in usu ritus, centies millies fuerunt, totiesque renascentur quoties ceciderunt.--52.

The paradoxical notions of the Stoics, upon the beauty, the riches, the dominion of their imaginary sage, are among the most distinguishing characteristics of the school, and, according to their advocate Lipsius, were peculiar to that sect. Priora illa (decreta) que passim in philosophantium scholis fere obtinent, ista quæ peculiaria buic secta et habent contradictionem: i. e. paradoxa.-Minuduct. ad Stoic. Philos. lib. iii, dissertat. 2. But it is evident (as the Abbe GARNIER bas remarked, Mémoires de l'Acad. tom. 35), that even these absurdities of the Stoics are borrowed, and that Plato is the source of all their extravagant paradoxes. We find their dogma, « dives qui sapiens, (which Clement of Alexandria has transferred from the Philosopher to the Christian, Pædagog. lib. iii, cap. 6), expressed in the prayer of SOCRATES at the end of the PREDRUS. pide ay τε και άλλοι όσοι της θεοι, δοίητε μοι καλώ γενεσθαι τανδοθεν τάξωθεν δε όσα έχω, τοῖς εντος είναι μοι pikia mhovacou de vouisoque con sopov. And many other instances might be adduced from the Atpat, the floditexos, etc. to prove that these weeds of paradox were gathered among the Hence it is that CICERO, In the preface to bowers of the Academy.

his Paradores, calls them Socratica; and Lipsies, exulting in the patronage of Socrates, says, Ille totus est noster. This is indeed a coalition which evinces, as much as can be wished, the confused similitude of ancient philosophical opinions: the father of scepticism is bere enrolled amongst the founders of the Portico; be whose best knowledge was that of his own ignorance, is called in to authorize the pretensions of the most obstinate dogmatists in all antiquity.

RUTILICS, in bis Itinerarium, has ridiculed the sabbath of the Jews. as lassati mollis imago Dei; but EPICURUS gave an eternal boliday to his gods, and, rather than disturb the slumbers of Olympus, denied at once the interference of a Providence. He does not, however, seem to have been singular in this opinion. THEOPHILUS of Antioch, if he deserve any credit, in a letter to Autolycus, lib. iii, imputes a similar belief to Pythagoras: pytl (ПUSzyɔpas) te Twv πάντων θεους ανθρώπων μηδεν φροντίζειν' and PiTARCH, though so hostile to the followers of Epicurus, has unaccountably adopt d the very same theological error; having quoted the opinions of Anaxagoras and Plato upon divinity, he adds, Korvos oUY ἁμαρτάνουσιν αμφότεροι, ότι τον θεον εποίησαν επι

Pythagoras is represented in JAMBLICHES as descending with great solemnity from Mount Carmel, for which reason the Carmelites have claimed him as one of their fraternity. This Mochus or Moschus, with the descendants of whom Pythagoras conversed in Phoenicia, and from whom he derived the doctrines of atomic philosophy, is suppoμsvoY TWY KYPOTTIVO.-De Placit. Philosoph. lib. i, posed by some to be the same with Moses. Er has adopted this idea, Demonstration évangélique, prop. iv, chap. 2, sec.7; and Le Clerc, amongst others, has refuted it.-See Biblioth, choisie, tom, i, p. 75. It is certain, however, that the doctrine of atoms was known and promulgated long before Epicurus. • With the fountains of

Democritus, says CICERO, the gardens of Epicurus were watered ;= and indeed the learned author of the Intellectual System has shown, that all the early philosophers, till the time of Plato, were atomists. We find Epicuras, however, boasting that his tenets were new and unborrowed, and perhaps few among the ancients had a stronger claim to originality; for, in truth, if we examine their schools of philosophy, notwithstanding the peculiarities which seem to distinguish them from each other, we may generally observe that the difference is but verbal and trifting, and that, among those varicus and learned heresies, there is scarcely one to be selected, whose opinions are its own, or.

cap. 7. PLATO himself has attributed a degree of indifference to the gods, which is not far removed from the apathy of Epicuous' heaven; as thus, in bis Philebus, where Protarchus asks, Ouxový ɛixas YE our xxιрety Deous,OUTE TO SYXYT (OV; and SocRATES answers, Πανυ μεν ουν εικός, ασχημου γουν αυτών έκατερον

19: while ARISTOTLE supposes a still more absurd neutrality, and concludes, by no very flattering analogy, that the Deity is as incapable of virtue as of vice: Kat yap wokep ouder Inptou est zanix, ovo" apein, outws oude SeUU.Ethio. Nicomach, lib. vii, cap. 1. In truth, ARISTOTLE, upon the subject of Providence, was little more correct than EriceRus. supposed the moon to be the limit of divine interference, excluding of course this sublunary world from its influence. The first definition of the world, in his treatise, spt zouou (if this treatise be really

He

Through many a system, where the scatter'd light
Of heavenly truth lay, like a broken beam

the work of ARISTOTLE), agrees almost verbum verbo, with that in the letter of Epicurus to PythoCLES; they both omit the mention of a

deity; and, in his Ethies, he intimates a doubt whether the gods feel any interest in the concerns of mankind. Ει γαρ τις επιμέλεια των ανθρωπίνων ὑποθεων γινεται. It is true, he adds, 'Domep dozet, but even this is very sceptical.

In these erroneous conceptions of Aristotle, we trace the cause of that general neglect which his philosophy experienced among the early Christians. PLATO is seldom much more orthodox, but the ob

scure enthusiasm of his style allowed them to interpret all his fancies to their purpose; such glowing steel was easily moulded, and Platonism became a sword in the hands of the fathers.

The Providence of the Stoics, so vaunted in their school, was a

power as contemptibly inefficient as the rest. All was fate in the

system of the Portico. The chains of destiny were thrown over Ju

From the pure sun, which though refracted all
Into a thousand hues, is sunshine still, '
And bright through every change!—he spoke of Ilim,
The lone? Eternal One who dwells above,
And of the soul's untraceable descent

From that high fount of spirit, through the grades
of intellectual being, till it mix
With atoms vague, corruptible, and dark;
Nor even then, though sunk in earthly dross,
Corrupted all, nor its ethereal touch
Quite lost, but tasting of the fountain still!
As some bright river, which has roll'd along
Through meads of flowery light and mines of gold,
When pour'd at length into the dusky deep,
Disdains to mingle with its briny taint,

But keeps awhile the pure and golden tinge,
The balmy freshness of the fields it left! 3

And here the old man ceased-a winged train
Of nymphs and genii led him from our eyes.
The fair illusion fled! and, as I waked,
I knew my visionary soul had been
Among that people of aerial dreams
Who live upon the burning galaxy! 4

ΤΟ

14

THE world had just begun to steal
Each hope that led me lightly on,

I felt not as I used to feel,

And life grew dark and love was gone!

piter himself, and their deity was like Borgia, et Cæsar et nihil. Not even the language of SENECA can reconcile this degradation of divinity: Ille ipse omnium conditor ac rector scripsit quidam fata, sed sequitur; semper paret, semel jussit »—Lib. de Providentia, cap. 5. With respect to the difference between the Stoics, Peripatetics, and Academicians, the following words of CICERO prove that he saw but little to distinguish them from each other: Peripateticos et Academicos, nominibus differentes, re congruentes; a quibus Stoici ipsi verbis magis quam sententiis dissenserunt. »— Academic, lib. ii, 5, and perhaps what REID has remarked upon one of their points of controversy might be applied as effectually to the reconcilement of all the rest: The dispute between the Stoics and Peripatetics was probably all for want of definition. The one said they were good under the control of reason, the other that they should be eradicated.-Essays, vol. iii. In short, from the little which I know upon the subject, it appears to me as difficult to establish the boundaries of opinion between any two of the philosophical sects, as it would be to fix the landmarks of those estates in the moon, which Ricciolus so generously allotted to his brother astronomers. Accordingly we observe some of the greatest men of antiquity passing without scruple from school to school, according to the faney or convenience of the moment. CICERO, the father of Roman philosophy, is sometimes an Academiciao, sometimes a Stoic: and, more than once, he acknowledges a conformity with Epicurus; non sine causa igitur, Epicurus ausus est dicere semper in pluribus bonis esse sapientem, quia semper sit in 'T was gloomy, and I wish'd for death! voluptatibus.-Tusculan. Quæst. lib. v. Though often pure in his trines upon pleasure, as explained in the letter to Menaceus, are ratheology, he sometimes smiles at futurity as a fiction; thus, in his tional, amiable, and consistent with our nature. M. de SABLONS, in Oration for Cluentius,speaking of punishments in the life to come, he his Grands hommes vengés, expresses strong indignation against the says, - Quæ si falsa sunt, id quod omnes intelligunt, quid ei tandem Encyclopédistes for their just and animated praises of Epicurus; and, aliud mors eripuit, præter sensum doloris ? though here perhaps we discussing the question, si ce philosophe était vertueux, he deshould do him justice by agreeing with his commentator SYLVIUS, whonies it upon no other authority than the calumnies collected by Pluremarks upon this passage, «flæ autem dixit, ut causæ suæ subserviret. Horace roves like a butterfly through the schools, and now wings along the walls of the Porch, and now basks among the flowers of the Garden; while Virgil, with a tone of mind strongly philosophical, has left us uncertain of the sect which he espoused: the balance of opinion declares him an Epicurean, but the ancient author of his life asserts that he was an Academician, and we trace through his poetry the tenets of almos: all the leading sects. The same kind of electric

indifference is observable in most of the Roman writers. Thus PRO-
PERTIES, in the fine Elegy of Cynthia, on his departure for Athens,
Illic vel studiis animum emendare Platonis,
Incipiam, aut hortis, docte Epicure, tuis.
Lib. iii, eleg. 21.

Though Broukhusius here reads, dux Epicure, which seems to fix the poet under the banners of Epicurus, even the Stoic Seneca, whose doctrines have been considered so orthodox that St Jerome bas ranked him amongst the ecclesiastical writers, and Bocaccio, in his commentary upon Dante has doubted (in consideration of the philosopher's supposed correspondence with St Paul), whether Dante should have placed him in Limbo with the rest of the Pagans-the Rigid Seneca has bestowed such commendations on Epicurus, that if only these passages of his works were preserved to us, we could not, I think. hesitate in pronouncing him an Epicurean. In the same manner we find Porphyry, in his work upon abstinence, referring to Epicurus as an example of the most strict Pythagorean temperance; and LANCELOTTI, the author of Farfalloni degli antichi Istorici, has been seduced by this grave reputation of Epicurus into the absurd error of associating him with Chrysippus, as a chief of the Stoic School. There is no doubt, indeed, that however the Epicurean sect might have re

laxed from its original purity, the morals of its founder were as correct as those of any among the ancient philosophers, and his doc

No eye to mingle sorrow's tear,

No lip to mingle pleasure's breath,
No tongue to call me kind and dear-

tarch, who himself confesses that, on this particular subject, he consulted only opinion and report, without pausing to investigate their

truth.

To the facticus zeal of his illiberal rivals the Stoics, Epicarus owed Αλλά την δόξαν, ου την αληθείαν σκοπούμην. these gross misrepresentations of the life and opinions of himself Gassendi, have still left an odium on the name of his philosophy: and his associates, which, notwithstanding the learned exertions of and we ought to examine the ancient accounts of Epicurus with the same degree of cautious belief which, in reading ecclesiastical history, we yield to the declamations of the fathers against the heretics; trusting as little to Plutarch upon a dogma of this philosopher, as we would to St Cyril upon a tenet of Nestorius. 1801.

The preceding remarks, I wish the reader to observe, were written at a time when I thought the studies to which they refer much more important and much more amusing than, I freely confess, they appear to me at present.

LACTANTIUS asserts that all the truths of Christianity may be any one who would collect these scattered fragments of orthodoxy, found dispersed through the ancient philosophical sects, and that might form a code in no respect differing from that of the Christian. « Si extitisset aliquis, qui veritatem sparsam per singulos per setasque diffusam colligeret in unum, ac redigeret in corpus, is profecto non dissentiret a nobis,Inst. lib. vi, c. 7.

* Το μόνον και ερημον.

3 This fine Platonic image I have taken from a passage in Father Bouchet's letter upon the Metempsychosis, inserted in PICART's Cérem. Relig. tom. iv.

4 A-cording to Pythagoras, the People of Dreams are souls collected together in the Galaxy. Anuos de overpow, xata livŠayapav, ai puyacás suvayesdaɩ praev sıç tau pakağızv. -PORPHYR, de Antro Nymph.